I've had a lot of fun in this class. This final post is a reflection of my time in the class.

Has your definition of art changed since the beginning of the class?

It really has. I was opened up to so many mediums and ways to do art that I hadn't hear d of before. I just thought sculpting was carving into things and making things out of clay but it's so much more complex than that.

What did you find most difficult about this class?

Considering my skill level in sculpting is really low, it was hard creating quality projects that I could actually make look decent. It would take me days to figure out an idea because all I thought was, "I can't do that it's to difficult. I bet you so and so could make that better than I can." When I actually found an idea, it took me forever to make it and it usually looked lack luster compared to the other students work.

Choose a place or artwork where the subject matter reflects you as an artist. One that you have a personal connection to. Please explain. I don't know if Illustration Friday pieces count but I have one that I really connected to.﻿﻿

I won't get into it but I have suffered from depression and anxiety for a long time and this piece is a reflection of how I feel. Depression makes you feel like you're breaking or fading away. I incorporated myself into this piece even in the word Triangle was basic. We all break away piece by piece and in different pieces. A triangle is one of them.

Do over: If given the opportunity, which project would you do over?

I would do my Animal Head project over.

This has got to be my least favorite project. I think it came out so lumpy and ugly and glazing it didn't really fix that. I don't know if much will change if I did it over put I would probably try to smooth it out more.

Regardless of whether you liked or disliked a project, which one did you learn, grow, or developed the most from?

I'm going to say my Animal Head project again.

Considering how much I bashed it in the last question, this project really showed me how much practice I needed. Everybody's project was so detailed and smooth while mine looked like it came straight out of a Kindergarten classroom. Even thought I didn't improve dramatically during the course of the class, my pieces certainly looked better after this project.

Since my free project had taken so much time that I had to work on it during the next assignment, I combined the assignment after the free project, the dwelling project and combined it with the pit firing project, which came after the dwelling project. I didn't have a good idea for this project, considering it couldn't be too big so I decided to make something basic. I decided on this mouse house which didn't take too much time.

You want to start by making decent sized sphere made out of clay and you want to try and get it as round as you can. After that, take two equal sized pieces of clay and cut two circles out using an exacto knife. Those two pieces are used for the ears. Before you attach the ears, make an arch shape door anywhere on the sphere and make it reach into the middle of the sphere. You want to make a small hole inside the door so air can circulate through the piece while its being fired. After you do that, just attach the ears and let it dry for 24 hours. After drying, to make a pattern you can use anything that'll make an imprint, like a leaf or some colored paper. You can also use this substance that will create and orange or pink color in the kiln. Be wary that the substance is highly toxic and will slowly disintegrate any surface it touches. After making your design, wrap your piece in a lot of aluminium foil. The foil will dissolve in the kiln. If you do the process right, you'll get a shiny texture and different colors. Mine wasn't done right because there wasn't enough aluminum wrapped around it. The design should have a shiny texture.

This is personally my favorite piece that I've created in this class. Inspired by Diana Beltran Herra's realistic paper bird sculptures, I tried to recreate my own version using free materials from around the classroom. This whole process took over a month because this piece requires a lot of detail and patience to do. I started out by carving out a bird shaped body out of Styrofoam (which cab make a big mess by the way so be careful when doing that). After that. I picked out the colors for the feathers. You can use whatever colors you want but I picked blue, peach, and black. To make the wing, I cut two pieces of paper to make A winged shape, using and exacto knife. I used basic school glue to stick the wing base to the sides of the bird. After letting the glue sit for a few minutes, I started cutting feather shapes on blue paper, using the exacto knife.I started gluing the pieces of feather shaped paper to the Styrofoam body. I repeated this process very many times which made this project very tedious. You also want to layer the feathers to give the body more a of a shape. A tricky part of this is creating the shape of the face. You want to make a small cone to stick on the face. You want to try making the cones diameter as close to the circle of the face so you can wrap the tape around the head easier. After doing that, you roll a small piece of paper for the and stick it in the small opening at the tip of the cone shape. After that, just repeat the same cutting and gluing process until you finally finish putting all the feathers in place. You can use whatever you see fit for the eyes but I just used small, silver beads. To make the feet, I took pieces of wire and bent them into shape. I left a the wire on top long enough so I can stick it into the birds body. This is optional but you can create a perch like I did. I made the base out of clay, fired it, and then used watercolor paint to give it wood textured look. I used two small pieces of wood to make the actual perch. You want to use hot glue to make sue it stays together, or else you're gonna have a hard time keeping it together. After that, you just want to wrap the wire on the perch so the bird will stand on it. I tied two ribbons on for more detail and then I was finished.

Pit firing is the early form of the firing progress which would glaze the sculpted piece without the use of glaze.

WHAT IS FOIL SAGGAR?

Foil saggar is when foil is used to cover the piece while firing. The wrap protects it from cinders and debris that might fly around during the firing. Apparently cheap, bargain brands of foil tend to thin out and burn away while firing. Its much better to go with something like Heavy Duty Reynolds Wrap.

This is a penguin sculpture I made in my sculpting class. Its just a head and it was entirely composed of clay. I had a hard time figuring out what animal I wanted to do. I actually settled on a dog but as I was sculpting the dog's ear, it really didn't look like a dog anymore and I ended up turning it over and using the ear as the beak for the penguin. It took me maybe 3 or 4 days to edit the piece to make it more penguin like. After fixing the shape, i used black and orange glaze paint to paint it. After letting the paint dry over night, I fired it in the kiln and that's how it took it's shiny form.

This was the first assignment I did in Sculpture. The goal was a to create a 3x3 relief tile that represented nature. As I have little to no experience in sculpture, i decided to do something simple. As you can see, the main focus of the piece is a leaf. Everything else is detail that just accomplices it. I used a scalpel and my own hadns to shape this tile. All in all, thought this was a success.

There isn't that much information on Makoto Azuma himself. A small Wikipedia page states that he was born in 1976 and has been sculpting since 2005. I find him very inspiring (obviously).The way he captures nature is beautiful. Makoto Azuma takes the forms of nature and puts them in shapes and forms that you probably haven't seen before. He also places nature, as in: Flowers, trees, leaves and other plants, in other environments.

Makoto's latest form of nature expression has been captivating bouquets of flowers in rectangular blocks of ice. This method is used to show nature in a shape that you usually wouldn't see. My sculpting medium is mostly based on nature, while my drawing medium is mostly cartoons and anime, so I want to take more of Azuma's work in account when I sculpt and maybe when i draw.